DAYTON, Ohio — The sounds of summer will make their way through the streets of downtown Dayton beginning this weekend with the return of the city’s free seasonal music festivals.
What You Need To Know
- Dayton Jazz Festival will kick off a series of summer musical events downtown
- Sponsored by the City of Dayton, the festivals will take place monthly through September
- Each show will take place at Levitt Pavilion Dayton, which hosts free outdoor concerts
- Organizers aim to use the shows to activate and bring to life to downtown
The City of Dayton Summer Music Series kicks off Sunday, June 12, with the Dayton Jazz Festival at Levitt Pavilion Dayton (134 S. Main St).
Numerous acts will take the outdoor stage over the course of the day-long festival, including the Tucki Bailey Band, the Brian Cashwell Band, the Kelli Campbell Quintet, Chango, and Robert Cunningham and the Heavy Hitters. The performances start at 1 p.m. and go until 9 p.m.
Admission is free. The venue is an open park so capacity is fluid, but on the main lawn the capacity is 5,000.
Cold beverages, food from local vendors and merchandise will be available for purchase. Guests are welcome to bring a blanket or lawn chair, but they can’t bring their own food or drinks. They can bring a refillable water bottle, though.
There are no pets allowed.
“As the summer begins I am so glad we’re able to offer our community fun and free entertainment like the Summer Music Series,” said Dayton Mayor Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr. “I look forward to enjoying the kickoff on Sunday and encourage everyone to come out."
Genre-specific music festivals will take place once a month through September. The next is the Blues Festival on July 24. Two other shows—the Funk Festival (Aug. 14) and the Reggae Festival (Sept. 4)—will close out the series.
The Summer Music Series has come a long way from its humble origins. It all started with a single event back in 1982—the Women in Jazz Festival.
Founded by well-known Daytonian Jim Nichols, the festival aimed to showcase local talent and bring together the broader Dayton community. Organizers also wanted to draw people from across the region to downtown. Back then, the festival took place at Dave Hall Plaza, which is now the site of Levitt Pavilion.
Because of its popularity, the city added other music genres to the mix, which led to the creation of the blues, funk and reggae festivals.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the Summer Music Series the past few years, including leading to its cancellation in 2020. This will be the first Dayton Jazz Festival since 2019.
“Needless to say, we’re very excited,” said Nick Terbay with the city’s Department of Recreation, which hosts the event. Other sponsors include the Levitt Pavilion, Radisson of Dayton, Downtown Dayton Partnership, and Taje Music Entertainment.
Activating downtown Dayton is important, Terbay said, because it helps residents “better engage” with their city and their neighbors. The Dayton Recreation will also host its annual “Lights in Flight Firework Festival at the Riverscape Metro Park, July 3.
“There are so many great places and venues, steeped in history, that we are proud to showcase during these events,” Terbay added.
Today, each of the festivals continues to take place at Levitt Pavilion Dayton, which the City of Dayton rents to host its Summer Music Series.
The music venue holds many shows and other cultural events for free all year round, including the 2022 Eichelberger Concert Season.
“With our concert season we’re activated every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but outside of that we love that the community has embraced our venue as a gathering space and it’s activated even more than just three days a week throughout the summer,” said Lisa Wagner, executive director of Levitt Pavilion Dayton.
Levitt Pavilion is part of a national network of outdoor Levitt venues and Levitt AMP concert sites dedicated to revitalizing areas through free, live music. One goal is to make attending concerts and festivals more accessible to families or those with a lower income.
The construction of the venue helped bring to life Dave Hall Plaza, a long-underutilized public space at the southern gateway to the city’s downtown.
Since opening in 2018, the Levitt Pavilion has hosted 122 live concerts besides a virtual concert series in 2020 during the ongoing pandemic.
In 2021 alone, Levitt had 36 free concerts, generating an estimated economic impact for the surrounding area of $1.8 million. That number is because a third of audiences spend $60 on the night of a concert, per Levitt.
There are 46 free concerts scheduled at the venue for its Eichelberger Concert Season this season, plus an additional eight pop-up concerts in the community.
“Our mission is to build community through music, one free concert at a time,” Wagner said. “We achieve this through our yearly free concert season, our educational outreach and our pop-up concert programs.”